Throughout the state, an average 47 percent of homicides are solved, according to San Francisco Chronicle and California Department of Justice research done in 2000. Oakland is one percent below the state average, but San Francisco is a different story.

In 2004, San Francisco solved 26 percent of its 80 homicides, according to a December 2004 article by Bay City News. Oakland had 108 homicides, according to Junious Williams of the Urban Strategies Council, and has nearly 30 percent more homicide cases solved.

Last year, San Francisco closed files on only three of the city's reported 38 homicides. This year, Oakland police have arrested suspects in 11 of 31 killings and have issued arrest warrants in an additional six cases. Oakland police have either made arrests or named suspects in more than half of its cases, unlike San Francisco, which has made arrests in fewer than 8 percent of the homicide cases, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross.

On May 23, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Lt. John Hennessey, head of the San Francisco Police Department's homicide unit, who said, “We have solid leads on two-thirds of these cases, it’s not like they are unsolved. We don’t have witnesses willing to come forward … (because) they are intimidated and scared.”

Oakland police have an approach to finding those who commit murders. A numerous amount of killings in Oakland are connected to narcotics trafficking. With this in mind, investigators interview drug suspects who were recently arrested. Teams of officers patrol popular drug-infested neighborhoods, mainly in the Elmhurst District and central east Oakland, where they crack down on crime and constantly stay in touch with the homicide unit on a daily basis, according to the Urban Strategies Council. The strategy has led to more arrests of drug dealers, who in time come across with information in unsolved homicides.

Officers are willing to do nearly anything to get tips from the suspects that might help them solve the homicide. Last year, Oakland police traveled to Los Angeles with intentions of arresting a possible suspect in a murder case. They received a murder confession upon arrival.

Oakland police also have no problem with working overtime, especially since more than half of their suspects are arrested when they are working overtime. Up until February of 2004, San Francisco police were prohibited from working overtime due to the city’s budget problems, according to Matier and Ross.

Even though the Oakland Police Department is ahead of the San Francisco Police Department in solving murder cases, Oakland still falls into the ninth slot of the highest murder rates in the United States. From the number-one slot (New Orleans and Los Angeles with 274 homicides in 2004), all the way down to the 39th slot (Jersey City with 24 murders in 2004), the amount of homicides each year is very similar. According to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation, a majority of them are three digits.

To help limit the amount of violence, the city of Oakland has organized a nonprofit youth development called the Teen Forum. The Teen Forum is held once a year, lasting about four hours, at the Eastmont Town Center in Oakland. It involves teen and adult speakers and fun activities designed especially for youth.

The speakers are highly motivational. They include some of the best youth mentors in the Bay Area.

The forum also covers topics such as substance abuse and sex and relationships among young people.

“The Street Soldiers” is also a popular radio program on KMEL on Sunday nights that involves highly educated professors who send encouragement out to teenagers. Guest speakers include people who teens can relate to, but also people who teens don’t want to be: victims of gunshots, innocent bystanders, and ex-gang members. They use their appearance to convince the teens not to be gang members or drug traffickers.